Calvin is one of those characters that command
respect and admiration rather than affection, and forbid familiar
approach, but gain upon closer acquaintance. The better he is known,
the more he is admired and esteemed. Those who judge of his character
from his conduct in the case of Servetus, and of his theology from the
"decretum horribile," see the spots on the sun, but not the sun itself.
Taking into account all his failings, he must be reckoned as one of the
greatest and best of men whom God raised up in the history of
Christianity.

He has been called by competent judges of
different creeds and schools, "the theologian" par excellence, "the
Aristotle of the Reformation," "the Thomas Aquinas of the Reformed
Church," "the Lycurgus of a Christian democracy," "the Pope of Geneva."
He has been compared, as a church ruler, to Gregory VII. and to
Innocent III. The sceptical Renan even, who entirely dissents from his
theology, calls him the most Christian man of his age." Such a
combination of theoretic and practical pre-eminence is without a
parallel in history. But he was also an intolerant inquisitor and
persecutor, and his hands are stained with the blood of a heretic.12651265 His enemies in Geneva
even started the proverb, if we are to believe the untrustworthy
Baudouin: "Better with Beza in hell than with Calvin in
heaven." Take these characteristics
together, and you have the whole Calvin; omit one or the other of them,
and you do him injustice. He will ever command admiration and even
reverence, but can never be popular among the masses. No pilgrimages
will be made to his grave. The fourth centennial of his birth, in 1909,
is not likely to be celebrated with such enthusiasm as
Luther’s was in 1883, and Zwingli’s
in 1884. But the impression he made on the Swiss, French, Dutch, and
especially on the Anglo-Saxon race in Great Britain and America, can
never be erased.12661266 See the collection of
remarkable tributes in § 68, pp. 270 sqq. I will only add
two more from Dr. Baur and Dr. Möhler, the great historians
who were colleagues and antagonists, the champions, indeed, of opposite
creeds in one of the most important theological controversies of the
nineteenth century. The Protestant Baur, in his Kirchengeschichte (IV. 374), calls Calvin a man "von seltener Gelehrsamkeit, feiner,
vielseitiger Bildung, scharfem, durchdringendem Geiste,
kräftigem, aber strengem Charakter, vollkommen
würdig, den übrigen Häuptern der
Reformation zur Seite zu stehen, an Schärfe des Geistes zum
Theil ihnen noch überlegen." The Roman Catholic Möhler, the author of the
Symbolik, which caused a great sensation in its day, says in his
posthumous Kirchengeschichte (III. 189):
"Calvin besass sehr viel
Scharfsinn und eine ausnehmende Beredtsamkeit, und war weit gelehrter
als alle übrigen Reformatoren, so dass Lehren, die bei einem
andern abscheulich gewesen wären, aus seinem Munde wohl
klingen;" but he adds:
"Zu bedauern aber ist, dass
eine so grosse geistige Kraft im Dienste des Irrthums
war."

Calvin’s bodily presence, like
that of St. Paul, was weak. His earthly tent scarcely covered his
mighty spirit. He was of middle stature, dark complexion, thin, pale,
emaciated, and in feeble health; but he had a finely chiseled face, a
well-formed mouth, pointed beard, black hair, a prominent nose, a lofty
forehead, and flaming eyes which kept their lustre to the last. He
seemed to be all bone and nerve. He looked in death, Beza says, like
one who was asleep. A commanding intellect and will shone through the
frail body. There are several portraits of him; the best is the oil
painting in the University Library of Geneva, which presents him in
academic dress and in the attitude of teaching, with the mouth open,
one hand laid upon the Bible, the other raised.12671267 It is reproduced on p.
256. Mr. Theophile Dufour, the librarian, assured me in 1886 that it is
the most authentic portrait. Professor Diodati, a former librarian,
wrote to Dr. Henry (III. P. I. Preface, p. vii): "Quant au portrait que l’on
voit ànotre bibliothèque, il atoujours
passépour authentique et fidèle. Nos peintres
s’accordent àreconnaître
qu’il est bien de l’époque
de Calvin et qu’il est peint d’une
manière remarquable. On l’a souvent
attribuéa Holbein; mais cette opinion n’est
pas constatée. Ce que l’on peut dire
c’est qu’on y retrouve sa
manière. En l’étudiant
attentivement on lui trouve un air de
véritéfrappant."

He calls himself timid and pusillanimous by
nature; but his courage rose with danger, and his strength was
perfected in weakness. He belonged to that class of persons who dread
danger from a distance, but are fearless in its presence. In his
conflict with the Libertines he did not yield an inch, and more than
once exposed his life. He was plain, orderly and methodical in his
habits and tastes, scrupulously neat in his dress, intemperately
temperate, and unreasonably abstemious. For many years he took only one
meal a day, and allowed himself too little sleep.

Calvin’s intellectual endowments
were of the highest order and thoroughly disciplined: a retentive
memory, quick perception, acute understanding, penetrating reason,
sound judgment, complete command of language. He had the classical
culture of the Renaissance, without its pedantry and moral weakness. He
made it tributary to theology and piety. He was not equal to Augustin
and Luther as a creative genius and originator of new ideas, but he
surpassed them both and all his contemporaries as a scholar, as a
polished and eloquent writer, as a systematic and logical thinker, and
as an organizer and disciplinarian. His talents, we may say, rose to
the full height of genius. His mind was cast in the mould of Paul, not
in that of John. He had no mystic vein, and little imagination. He
never forgot anything pertaining to his duty; he recognized persons
whom he had but once seen many years previously. He spoke very much as
he wrote, with clearness, precision, purity, and force, and equally
well in Latin and French. He never wrote a dull line. His judgment was
always clear and solid, and so exact, that, as Beza remarks, it often
appeared like prophecy. His advice was always sound and useful. His
eloquence was logic set on fire. But he lacked the power of
illustration, which is often, before a popular audience, more effective
in an orator than the closest argument.

His moral and religious character was grounded in
the fear of God, which is "the beginning of wisdom." Severe against
others, he was most severe against himself. He resembled a Hebrew
prophet He may be called a Christian Elijah. His symbol was a hand
offering the sacrifice of a burning heart to God. The Council of Geneva
were impressed with "the great majesty" of his character.12681268Dieu
lui avait impriméun charactère
d’une si grande
majesté."
Registres, June 8, 1564. Grenus, Fragments Biographiques. This significant expression
accounts for his overawing power over his many enemies in Geneva, who
might easily have crushed him at any time. His constant and sole aim
was the glory of God, and the reformation of the Church. In his eyes,
God alone was great, man but a fleeting shadow. Man, he said, must be
nothing, that God in Christ may be everything. He was always guided by
a strict sense of duty, even in the punishment of Servetus. In the
preface to the last edition of his Institutes (1559), he says: "I have
the testimony of my own conscience, of angels, and of God himself, that
since I undertook the office of a teacher in the Church, I have had no
other object in view than to profit the Church by maintaining the pure
doctrine of godliness; yet I suppose there is no man more slandered or
calumniated than myself."12691269 He meets these
calumnies in a letter to Christopher Piperin, Oct. 18, 1555
(Opera, XV. 825 sq.), from which I quote the following passage:
"When I hear that I am everywhere so foully defamed, I have not such
iron nerves as not to be stung with pain. But it is no slight
consolation to me that yourself and many other servants of Christ and
pious worshippers of God sympathize with me in my injuries
… . Why should I worry honest people with my zeal for
vindicating my own reputation? Did there exist a greater necessity for
it, having entreated their indulgence, I might lay my defence before
them. But the scurrilous calumnies with which malignant men bespatter
me are too unfounded and too silly to require any labored refutation on
my part. The authors of them would tax me with self-importance, and
laugh at me as being too anxiously concerned for my character. One
example of these falsehoods is that immense sum of money which you
mention. Everybody knows how frugally I live in my own house. Every one
sees that I am at no expense for the splendor of my dress. It is well
known everywhere that my only brother is far from being rich, and that
the little which he has, he acquired without any influence of mine.
Where, then, was that hidden treasure dug up? But they openly give out
that I have robbed the poor. Well, this charge also, these most
slanderous of men will be compelled to confess, was falsely got up
without any grounds. I have never had the handling of one farthing of
the money which charitable people have bestowed on the poor. About
eight years ago, a man of rank [David de Busanton, a refugee; see
Calvin’s letter to Viret, Aug. 17, 1545, Opera,
XII. 139] died in my house who had deposited upwards of two thousand
crowns with me, and without demanding one scrap of writing to prove the
deposit. When I perceived that his life was in danger, though he wished
to intrust that sum to my management, I refused to undertake so
responsible a charge. I contrived, however, that eight hundred crowns
should be sent to Strassburg to relieve the wants of the exiles. By my
advice he chose men above suspicion to distribute the remainder of the
sum. When he wished to appoint me one of their number, to which the
others made no objections, I refused; but I see what nettles my
enemies. As they form an estimate of my character from their own, they
feel convinced that I must amass wherever I find a good opportunity.
But if during my lifetime I do not escape the reputation of being rich,
death will at last vindicate my character from this imputation." See
his testament, p. 829. Nevertheless Bolsec (ch. XI.) unscrupulously
repeated and exaggerated the calumny about the misappropriation of the
legacy of two thousand crowns. Comp. the editorial notes in
Opera, XV. 825 and 826.

Riches and honors had no charms for him. He soared
far above filthy lucre and worldly ambition. His only ambition was that
pure and holy ambition to serve God to the best of his ability. He
steadily refused an increase of salary, and frequently also presents of
every description, except for the poor and the refugees, whom he always
had at heart, and aided to the extent of his means. He left only two
hundred and fifty gold crowns, or, if we include the value of his
furniture and library, about three hundred crowns, which he bequeathed
to his younger brother, Antoine, and his children, except ten crowns to
the schools, ten to the hospital for poor refugees, and ten to the
daughter of a cousin. When Cardinal Sadolet passed through Geneva in
disguise (about 1547), he was surprised to find that the Reformer lived
in a plain house instead of an episcopal palace with a retinue of
servants, and himself opened the door.12701270 This incident is
related by Drelincourt, Bungener, and others, and believed in
Geneva. When Pope Pius IV. heard of his death he paid
him this tribute: "The strength of that heretic consisted in
this,—that money never had the slightest charm for
him. If I had such servants, my dominions would extend from sea to
sea." In this respect all the Reformers were true successors of the
Apostles. They were poor, but made many rich.

Calvin had defects which were partly the shadow of
his virtues. He was passionate, prone to anger, censorious, impatient
of contradiction, intolerant towards Romanists and heretics, somewhat
austere and morose, and not without a trace of vindictiveness. He
confessed in a letter to Bucer, and on his death-bed, that he found it
difficult to tame "the wild beast of his wrath," and he humbly asked
forgiveness for his weakness. He thanked the senators for their
patience with his often "excessive vehemence." His intolerance sprang
from the intensity of his convictions and his zeal for the truth. It
unfortunately culminated in the tragedy of Servetus, which must be
deplored and condemned, although justified by the laws and the public
opinion in his age. Tolerance is a modern virtue.

Calvin used frequently contemptuous and
uncharitable language against his opponents in his polemical writings,
which cannot be defended, but he never condescended to coarse and
vulgar abuse, like so many of his contemporaries.12711271 Comp. above,
§ 118, p. 595.

He has often been charged with coldness and want
of domestic and social affection, but very unjustly. The chapter on his
marriage and home life, and his letters on the death of his wife and
only child show the contrary.12721272 · See above,
§ 92, pp. 413-424. The charge is a mistaken inference from his
gloomy doctrine of eternal reprobation; but this was repulsive to his
own feelings, else he would not have called it "a horrible decree."
Experience teaches that even at this day the severest Calvinism is not
seldom found connected with a sweet and amiable Christian temper. He
was grave, dignified, and reserved, and kept strangers at a respectful
distance; but he was, as Beza observes, cheerful in society and
tolerant of those vices which spring from the natural infirmity of men.
He treated his friends as his equals, with courtesy and manly
frankness, but also with affectionate kindness. And they all bear
testimony to this fact, and were as true and devoted to him as he was
to them. The French martyrs wrote to him letters of gratitude for
having fortified them to endure prison and torture with patience and
resignation.12731273 Michelet (XI. 95):
"Les martyrs,
àleur dernier jour, se faisaient une consolation, un devoir
d’écrire àCalvin. Ils
n’auraient pas quittéla vie sans remercier
celui dont la parole les avait menés àla mort.
Leurs lettres, respectueuses, nobles et douces, arrachant les
larmes." "He
obtained," says Guizot, "the devoted affection of the best men and the
esteem of all, without ever seeking to please them." "He possessed,"
says Tweedie, "the secret and inexplicable power of binding men to him
by ties that nothing but sin or death could sever. They treasured up
every word that dropped from his lips."

Among his most faithful friends were many of the
best men and women of his age, of different character and disposition,
such as Farel, Viret, Beza, Bucer, Grynaeus, Bullinger, Knox,
Melanchthon, Queen Marguerite, and the Duchess Renée. His
large correspondence is a noble monument to his heart as well as his
intellect, and is a sufficient refutation of all calumnies. How tender
is his reference to his departed friend Melanchthon, notwithstanding
their difference of opinion on predestination and free-will: "It is to
thee, I appeal, who now livest with Christ in the bosom of God, where
thou waitest for us till we be gathered with thee to a holy rest. A
hundred times hast thou said, when, wearied with thy labors and
oppressed by thy troubles, thou reposedst thy head familiarly on my
breast, ’Would that I could die in this
bosom!’ Since then I have a thousand times wished that
it had happened to us to be together." How noble is his admonition to
Bullinger, when Luther made his last furious attack upon the Zwinglians
and the Zürichers (1544), not to forget "how great a man
Luther is and by what extraordinary gifts he excels." And how touching
is his farewell letter to his old friend Farel (May 2, 1564):
"Farewell, my best and truest brother! And since it is
God’s will that you should survive me in this world,
live mindful of our friendship, of which, as it was useful to the
Church of God, the fruits await us in heaven. Pray, do not fatigue
yourself on my account. It is with difficulty that I draw my breath,
and I expect that every moment will be my last. It is enough that I
live and die for Christ, who is the reward of his followers both in
life and in death. Again, farewell, with the brethren."

Calvin has also unjustly been charged with
insensibility to the beauties of nature and art. It is true we seek in
vain for specific allusions to the earthly paradise in which he lived,
the lovely shores of Lake Leman, the murmur of the Rhone, the snowy
grandeur of the monarch of mountains in Chamounix. But the writings of
the other Reformers are equally bare of such allusions, and the
beauties of Switzerland were not properly appreciated till towards the
close of the eighteenth century, when Haller, Goethe, and Schiller
directed attention to them. Calvin, however, had a lively sense of the
wonders of creation and expressed it more than once. "Let us not
disdain," he says, "to receive a pious delight from the works of God,
which everywhere present themselves to view in this very beautiful
theatre of the world"; and he points out that "God has wonderfully
adorned heaven and earth with the utmost possible abundance, variety,
and beauty, like a large and splendid mansion, most exquisitely and
copiously furnished, and exhibited in man the masterpiece of his works
by distinguishing him with such splendid beauty and such numerous and
great privileges."12741274Institutes, bk.
I. ch. XIV. 20. This whole chapter on Creation is replete with
admiration for the beauty and order of God’s universe.
"Were I desirous," he says (21), "of pursuing the subject to its full
extent, there would be no end; since there are as many miracles of
divine power, as many monuments of divine goodness, as many proofs of
divine wisdom as there are species of things in the world, and even as
there are individual things either great or small."

He had a taste for music and poetry, like Luther
and Zwingli. He introduced, in Strassburg and Geneva, congregational
singing, which he described as "an excellent method of kindling the
heart and making it burn with great ardor in prayer," and which has
ever since been a most important part of worship in the Reformed
Churches. He composed also a few poetic versifications of Psalms, and a
sweet hymn to the Saviour, to whose service and glory his whole life
was consecrated.

NOTE.

Calvin’s "Salutation à
Iésus Christ" was discovered by Felix Bovet of
Neuchâtel in an old Genevese prayer-book of 1545
(Calvin’s Liturgy), and published, together with
eleven other poems (mostly translations of Psalms), by the Strassburg
editors of Calvin’s works in 1867. (See vol. VI. 223
and Prolegg. XVIII. sq.) It reveals a poetic vein and a devotional
fervor and tenderness which one could hardly expect from so severe a
logician and polemic. A German translation was made by Dr. E.
Stähelin of Basel, and an English translation by Mrs. Henry
B. Smith of New York, and published in Schaff’s Christ
in Song, 1868. ("I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art." New York ed.
p. 678; London ed. p. 549.) We give it here in the original old French:
—

"Ie
te salue, mon certain Redempteur,

Ma vraye franc’ et mon seul
Salvateur,

Qui tant de labeur,

D’ennuys et de douleur

As enduré pour moy:

Oste de noz cueurs

Toutes vaines langueurs,

Fol soucy et esmoy.

"Tu es le Roy misericordieux;

Puissant par tout et regnant en tous lieux;

Vueille donc regner

En nous, et dominer

Sur nous entierement,

Nous illuminer,

Ravyr et nous mener

A ton haut Firmament.

"Tu es la vie par laquelle vivons,

Toute sustanc’ et toute
forc’ avons:

Donne nous confort

Contre la dure mort,

Que ne la craignons point,

Et sans desconfort

La passons d’un cueur fort

Quand ce viendra au point.

"Tu es la vraye et parfaite douceur,

Sans amertume, despit ne rigueur:

Fay nous savourer,

Aymer et adorer,

Ta tresdouce bonté;

Fay nous desirer,

Et tousiours demeurer

En ta douce unité.

"Nostre esperanc’ en autre
n’est qu’en toy,

Sur ta promesse est fondée nostre foy:

Vueilles augmenter,

Ayder et conforter

Nostre espoir tellement,

Que bien surmonter

Nous puissions, et Porter

Tout mal patiemment.

"A toy cryons comme povres banys,

Enfans d’Eve pleins de maux
infinis:

A toy souspirons,

Gemissons et plorons,

En la vallée de plours;

Pardon requerons

Et salut desirons,

Nous confessans pecheurs.

"Or avant donq, nostre Mediateur,

Nostre advocat et propiciateur,

Tourne tes doux yeux

Icy en ces bas lieux,

Et nous vueille monstrer

Le haut Dieu des Dieux,

Et aveq toy ’és cieux

Nous faire tous entrer.

"O debonnair’, o
pitoyabl’ et doux,

Des ames saintes amyabl’ espoux,

Seigneur Iesus Christ,

Encontre L’antechrist

Remply de cruauté,

Donne nous L’esprit

De suyvir ton escript

En vraye verité."

1265 His enemies in Geneva
even started the proverb, if we are to believe the untrustworthy
Baudouin: "Better with Beza in hell than with Calvin in
heaven."

1269 He meets these
calumnies in a letter to Christopher Piperin, Oct. 18, 1555
(Opera, XV. 825 sq.), from which I quote the following passage:
"When I hear that I am everywhere so foully defamed, I have not such
iron nerves as not to be stung with pain. But it is no slight
consolation to me that yourself and many other servants of Christ and
pious worshippers of God sympathize with me in my injuries
… . Why should I worry honest people with my zeal for
vindicating my own reputation? Did there exist a greater necessity for
it, having entreated their indulgence, I might lay my defence before
them. But the scurrilous calumnies with which malignant men bespatter
me are too unfounded and too silly to require any labored refutation on
my part. The authors of them would tax me with self-importance, and
laugh at me as being too anxiously concerned for my character. One
example of these falsehoods is that immense sum of money which you
mention. Everybody knows how frugally I live in my own house. Every one
sees that I am at no expense for the splendor of my dress. It is well
known everywhere that my only brother is far from being rich, and that
the little which he has, he acquired without any influence of mine.
Where, then, was that hidden treasure dug up? But they openly give out
that I have robbed the poor. Well, this charge also, these most
slanderous of men will be compelled to confess, was falsely got up
without any grounds. I have never had the handling of one farthing of
the money which charitable people have bestowed on the poor. About
eight years ago, a man of rank [David de Busanton, a refugee; see
Calvin’s letter to Viret, Aug. 17, 1545, Opera,
XII. 139] died in my house who had deposited upwards of two thousand
crowns with me, and without demanding one scrap of writing to prove the
deposit. When I perceived that his life was in danger, though he wished
to intrust that sum to my management, I refused to undertake so
responsible a charge. I contrived, however, that eight hundred crowns
should be sent to Strassburg to relieve the wants of the exiles. By my
advice he chose men above suspicion to distribute the remainder of the
sum. When he wished to appoint me one of their number, to which the
others made no objections, I refused; but I see what nettles my
enemies. As they form an estimate of my character from their own, they
feel convinced that I must amass wherever I find a good opportunity.
But if during my lifetime I do not escape the reputation of being rich,
death will at last vindicate my character from this imputation." See
his testament, p. 829. Nevertheless Bolsec (ch. XI.) unscrupulously
repeated and exaggerated the calumny about the misappropriation of the
legacy of two thousand crowns. Comp. the editorial notes in
Opera, XV. 825 and 826.

1270 This incident is
related by Drelincourt, Bungener, and others, and believed in
Geneva.

1274Institutes, bk.
I. ch. XIV. 20. This whole chapter on Creation is replete with
admiration for the beauty and order of God’s universe.
"Were I desirous," he says (21), "of pursuing the subject to its full
extent, there would be no end; since there are as many miracles of
divine power, as many monuments of divine goodness, as many proofs of
divine wisdom as there are species of things in the world, and even as
there are individual things either great or small."